–Majority Leader Harry Reid has put entitlements on the table, the first open step on the part of Democratic leadership toward the possibility of a grand budget bargain. Speaker Boehner and company still want to do short-term non-defense discretionary spending first.

Pawlenty was a fine governor, and I’m sure he would be a fine president. Yet I have never met anybody who is enthusiastic about him, and I’ve met quite a few of the people who work for him…. Can you reach the presidency with all around you saying, “He’s fine, he’ll do”?

–Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack defends outsize rural subsidies to Ezra Klein. Maybe it’s just the jaded cityslicker in me, but I don’t find this to be a compelling argument: “There’s a value system there. Service is important for rural folks. Country is important, patriotism is important.”